Get FREE update from Owojela's Blog by simply entering your e-mail

Click to follow us on Twitter

Equifax won’t bar consumers from joining breach-related lawsuits

Equifax,
which yesterday announced a truly enormous breach, will not require affected
consumers to forfeit their right to join a class action lawsuit against the
company in order to receive credit protection.

The company clarified the forced
arbitration clause in its terms of service after outcry by consumer advocates,
including New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who called the
requirement “unacceptable and unenforceable.”

The company
added the following to its FAQ for the TrustedID Premier program it is offering
to those affected by the breach:

Do the
TrustedID Terms of Use limit my options related to the cyber security incident?

The
arbitration clause and class action wavier [sic] included in the TrustedID
Premier Terms of Use applies to the free credit file monitoring and identity
theft protection products, and not the cyber security incident.

In other
words, if you use the service, any dispute regarding the service itself (e.g.
the protections fail to work) would be forced into arbitration — but legal
action relating specifically to the breach is not affected. I’ve contacted
Equifax for more specifics, but their press office is likely being bombarded
right now so it may be a while before they respond.

If you want
to be extra sure you won’t be bound by the arbitration clause, you can opt out
by writing a snail mail letter to the company:

Timely
written notice of opt out must be delivered to Equifax Consumer Services LLC,
Attn.: Arbitration Opt-Out, P.O. Box 105496, Atlanta, GA 30348, and must
include Your name, address, and Equifax User ID, as well as a clear statement
that You do not wish to resolve disputes with Equifax through arbitration.

Don’t worry,
you don’t get put on some kind of list. “Opting out of the arbitration
provision will have no adverse effect on your relationship with Equifax or the
delivery of Products to You by Equifax.”

Note: I am
not a lawyer or financial advisor. Equifax may change these terms or interpret
them differently (which is why I asked for more information). If you are at all
unsure about this, wait and see and take actions of your own, such as notifying
your bank, getting a free credit report and watching for suspicious
transactions.

In the
meantime, you may not even be missing out on much: a recent GAO investigation
of these kinds of services found that “companies often offer consumers affected
by a data breach complimentary identity theft services for reasons other than
mitigating the risk of identity theft, such as avoiding liability or complying
with state law.” And last week several members of the Committee on Energy and
Commerce asked for a closer look at “whether private-sector and government
entities have converged on suboptimal solutions for providing protection for
consumers and whether better solutions ought to be pursued.”

The terms
read in part:

By
consenting to submit Your Claims to arbitration, You will be forfeiting Your
right to bring or participate in any class action (whether as a named plaintiff
or a class member) or to share in any class action awards, including class
claims where a class has not yet been certified, even if the facts and
circumstances upon which the Claims are based already occurred or existed.

Such forced
arbitration clauses are common in service agreements, and have been held up
repeatedly in court.

Instead of
using the court system, consumers would have to take complaints or damages
through an arbitration system under terms dictated by the company. Arbitration
agreements may limit consumers’ ability to appeal, under what jurisdiction
negotiations would take place, whether the process is public or secret, and so
on. It’s possible that the process may be faster and simpler in some cases, but
one cedes an immense amount of control to the company — which it is certain to
exert for its own benefit.

There was no
indication in the terms of service that this particular clause would apply only
to certain disputes, and people naturally perceived it as an opportunistic
attempt by the company to inoculate itself against legal action.

Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, the Chief of Air
Staff has said the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is expecting new fighter aircraft
from no fewer than four countries to boost its capabilities, Owojela’s Blog
reports.

Walmart, a
popular retailer announced this Friday that it will begin testing a new service
that will allow customers with August smart home devices, like the August
doorbell and security cameras, to have their packages delivered inside their
home instead of left on the doorstep, Owojela’s Blog learnt.

Deloitte , a
corporate finance giant suffered a cyber-attack that compromised confidential
data, including the private emails of some of its clients, the company has
confirmed as Owojela’s Blog reports.

Google is
launching the successor to its Pixel smartphone on October 4, which is coincidentally the 2nd year anniversary of Africa’s fastest growing
blog Owojelas Blog, as confirmed by a new advertising campaign and official
landing page citing the date, and suggesting that anyone who is “thinking about
changing phones” tune in for more information coming on October 4.

First Lady of
the United States, Melania Trump had a royal meeting on Saturday. Before the
start of the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto, Prince Harry and Trump met and sat
down together. Kensington Palace posted a photo on Saturday afternoon of the
meeting.

At least
three UN peacekeepers were killed Sunday during an attack on their convoy in
Mali, the UN mission to the conflict-torn country said, without specifying
their nationality, Owojela’s Blog learnt.